If your business already has internal IT staff in place, you may be wondering about the benefits of partnering with a Managed Services Provider (MSP). And, if your internal staff knows you are considering making a move towards incorporating outsourced IT services, they may be wondering how secure their job is.
To be clear from the start, let us answer two basic questions with simple answers:
Question: Should my internal IT staff worry about partnering with an MSP?
Answer: No
Question: Should every business partner with an MSP?
Answer: No
Let’s unpack this a bit! We’ll provide perspective to enable you to determine the best path forward for you and your business by answering the following questions:
Here are a few ways an MSP can effectively support your internal IT team:
Your internal IT staff cannot always be available, especially when your IT staff is comprised of one or two team members. Not only do they need to take vacations and get some sleep, but they also need the space to focus on day-to-day responsibilities without interruption—at least some of the time.
An MSP’s ability to provide around the clock support includes completing critical activities like monitoring and maintaining systems. These are the kinds of things that internal staff can easily fall behind on as they try to keep up with employee support requests and keep your IT secure.
In fact, we find that 60% of the tickets we work on are generated internally through our monitoring systems and processes.
"If your internal IT staff are only responding when your employees request support, that potentially means 60% of your infrastructure needs are not being met."
If your IT needs are outgrowing your current IT staffing level, you may not have the financial resources to add another member to your IT team. When you recruit a new full-time employee to your IT team, you will not only have to pay them a competitive salary, but you will also likely be obligated to provide benefits, including paid leave. In many instances, the costs can be prohibitive.
Most businesses find cost-efficiencies after engaging with an MSP to support and supplement their internal IT staff.
If you are a growing business, then you are concerned with scaling for continued growth. The significant investment required to recruit and hire new IT staff can be worrisome, at least in the short term.
With MSP services in place, it is much easier to scale up and plan for future growth. MSPs can add IT support without big upfront cash expenditure.
There may also be times when you need to scale down. Perhaps you choose to close a location thereby reducing your IT needs in the short term. With MSPs, you can scale up or down based on your changing needs with ease.
Your existing IT staff may be very competent at handling your IT systems and providing support for your other employees. However, they may not excel in every area that falls under the banner of IT support.
MSPs typically have experts who are well-versed and specialize in key areas. We call this having both depth and breadth of IT experience.
MSPs implement large, specialized projects all the time. Projects such as email migrations, major systems updates, or designing and implementing new networks are common to an MSP. The MSP’s staff can implement these changes more effectively and efficiently than an internal resource who has only ever been exposed to these types of projects a time or two—or maybe never.
Internal IT staff can become overburdened with time-consuming, repetitive maintenance-related tasks. Their focus is on maintaining uptime for your employees so that they do not lose productivity. If your internal IT staff take the time to address the maintenance tasks, they often do not have enough time to pay attention to strategic initiatives.
An MSP can easily take over these maintenance responsibilities and automate the tasks. This frees up your IT staff to focus on productive and strategic activities.
The common perception among businesses is that engaging with an MSP means handing over control of their IT functions entirely. This, however, is far from the truth.
In fact, any MSP you hire should work in tandem with your IT team, complementing each other.
Ideally, the MSP you work with should not make you feel like they are taking control. They should reassure you that they are there to support you and assist you with achieving your goals.
When contemplating working with an MSP, do not immediately assume this means you are replacing your IT department. Rather, think of it as a partnership.
With that said, not all MSPs are alike. Might there be MSPs who do want to control your IT and replace your IT staff? Yes, they are out there.
This just means that you must perform your own due diligence to determine the makeup and culture of any MSP with whom you engage. The best way to obtain honest feedback is speaking to their existing clients. Find out how they operate. If they will not accommodate requests for their own client references, then they are likely not the right fit for your business.
Partnering with an MSP is not the right choice for every business with existing internal IT staff. The decision to engage an MSP if you already have competent internal IT staff should be based on understanding your current and future business limitations, needs, and opportunities.
The most obvious limitation that virtually every small and medium sized business faces is financial (i.e. budgetary constraints). It is unlikely that your business is so profitable that you do not need to worry about costs. Rather, like most SMBs, you keep a close eye on the bottom line.
Most businesses will experience cost savings and efficiency gains after engaging with an MSP. So, if you are looking to be more cost-efficient, then the timing may be right for you to outsource some of your IT.
If you are wondering what the cost of hiring an MSP might be, check out our Instant Pricing Calculator.
Making the choice of when it is the right time to partner with an MSP depends on several need-related factors, including from these key perspectives:
Your business opportunities are like your fingerprint—unique to you. However, there are similar patterns and key areas to explore when considering partnering with an MSP:
Are you facing a major project like transitioning away from Windows Server 2012 or moving to business-class email?
If embarking on this analysis seems daunting, you are not alone. Many businesses find it challenging to answer these questions unless they have the appropriate support.
The good news is that you do not have to do it on your own, nor do you need to pay big sums of money to an IT consulting firm to do it for you!
Gant Systems can help, and here is how: Take advantage of our free, no-obligation IT Health Score.
Together, we will explore the topics above and get a sense of where your business stacks up against other businesses of similar size and vertical. Our IT Health Score is a free high-level evaluation of your technology based on industry best practices and known risk factors. Your IT Health Score Report will assign letter grades in five key areas:
The report includes an analysis of your results and a guide for interpreting them, while drawing conclusions and making recommendations.
Armed with the insights provided in the IT Health Score Report, you’ll gain perspective on the strengths and weaknesses of your IT. From there, you’ll be able to make informed decisions about where to focus attention and resources to make your organization more productive and secure.
If you’d like to learn more about how Gant Systems can assist you and your business to better leverage your IT, Book a Discovery Call.
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